Streak Directory

[WE Are Geelong]

There is an interesting article in the Sunday Herald Sun by Jon Ralph which includes relevant stats on sides who have had long streaks in a season and whether they won the flags or not. There is also interesting relevant commentary and opinions about whether a loss is good or better to stay winning etc...

I looked for the link on the herald sun website but didnt find it....sorry. If it hasnt been put up yet but will be soon or anyone else finds it that would be helpful.

Its worth a read anyway...its the middle spread article of the sunday sports section.

 

[SirRooke]

stats are interesting, but nothing beats winning

i want Geelong to win every single bloody time they play fullstop

There is no such thing as a useful win, an honourable win or trying to lose.
Winning is all that matters. 1 point or 100 points if you don't win you lose and are a loser. Even if you have top spot wrapped up!!

I want Geelong to have this culture, so that when we have the flag in 2008 our sole intent is to repeat our success and smash teams.

Hopefully our players and fans will never tire of winning and never fall for thinking that losing sometimes is helpful. Its not and never will be. Success breeds success. You can learn things from failure but you can learn just as much from winning if you set your standards right.

I would hope that if Geelong was to lose a game sometime in the next 4 rounds the players would be physically hurting so bad from the hatred of it. This is the culture we need and the culture that will intimidate other clubs and their fans, breed their respect 10fold and make our club powerful. Not the maybe we should lose one kinda attitude. That sort of attitude is just crap.

 

[Rosso]

They said on K Rock last week that the cats had won at least 12 in a row 4 times (previous to this years current streak) in it's history.

All 4 years we ended up raising the cup aloft.

Here's to tradition!!!

 

[Partridge]

They said on K Rock last week that the cats had won at least 12 in a row 4 times (previous to this years current streak) in it's history.

All 4 years we ended up raising the cup aloft.

Here's to tradition!!!

Sorry, but slightly incorrect.

In 1953 they won the first 13 games of the season (taking the winning run to 23), but lost the Grand Final to Collingwood.

Just win this week then it's 14 anyway.

 

[Rosso]

Sorry, but slightly incorrect.

In 1953 they won the first 13 games of the season (taking the winning run to 23), but lost the Grand Final to Collingwood.

Just win this week then it's 14 anyway.

WHAT. K Rock lied. Those bastards.

 

[bigdroppunt]

WHAT. K Rock lied. Those bastards.

the boys on Krock never let the truth get in the way of a good story

 

[Stripey PJs]

I looked for the link on the herald sun website but didnt find it....sorry. If it hasnt been put up yet but will be soon or anyone else finds it that would be helpful.

I couldn't find it either, WAG, nor the link for "Wedding dresses give joy." Disappointing.

It surprises me that most of the longest streaks within a season have occurred during this communised era of modern footy. The cashed-up powerhouse dynasties of the past 'only' ever strung 9-10-11 wins together. The Saints, Dockers, Crows and now Cats have all done that in the past three years. Maybe the greater professionalism of today's footy, in both psychology and fitness, helps teams remain focused or 'up' longer? Maybe there are more 'easy target' teams rebuilding then at any point in the past, providing fewer challengers? It's counter-intuitive.

But do we need to drop a game? On this issue I'm firmly with SirRookey, I enjoy the aura of invincibility that builds with wins. That article highlighted the two strongest arguments for losing; it shakes complacency and relieves the pressure of expectation. I don't buy either. Complacency? Sure, in the regular season, and our players have lairised in patches over the past three weeks. But finals are different, finals are fierce, no team conceitedly enters one expecting jumping castles and fairy floss.

Misiti's comments on the expectations of 2000 are valid. I wonder when he became conscious of the pressure, during the streak, or only once they had lost to the Doggies? Either way, the Bombers' burden was greater than ours, for they were staring at an unprecedented season without defeat. I'm not denying the pressure argument, it is legitimate, but no-one who raised it considered the psi on the team competing against their Goliath. As a Coach, I'd rather my players faced the pressure of expectation than the pressure of playing a side that had won 14-15 games consecutively.

Parkin and Pagan's comments are intriguing. Both coaches have experienced broken/unbroken streaks, and both hold opposing viewpoints. I completely agree with Parko, however his argument weakens when you consider he still saluted in the year they took their foot off the pedal. Pagan's 11 game streak in '98 was shattered when Adelaide won the Granny (ouch), he then went all the way in '99 after a broken 10 game streak, so his views are understandable...but surprising. I never expected to read Denis 'endorsing' a loss, and I'd love to hear those 2004 quotes in context. Was he speaking after his team had suffered a 100+ point thumping at the end of the Saints' ten game streak? Was it a supportive opinion offered in the wake of hysteria following the 'complacent' Saints' loss?

Grant Thomas was only justifying his "Day after Tomorrow" decision. He clearly wasn't fishing for a loss that weekend; his players were tiring and he believed resting was the best strategy to snare their eleventh win. Now I see a key difference, other than fitness, between the Cats of '07 and the Saints of '04: the response to a win. A few weeks ago David Wojcinski said, "You never get tired of winning." Were the Saints players ever allowed to enjoy their victories? Did they sing the theme song after any of their ten wins with the gusto of the Cats? The lid was so tightly jammed their players competed to pull the sourest face after they won the pre-season cup. Geelong's lid only keeps the players focused on the upcoming week rather than the future; there's plenty of leeway to celebrate the previous win and I believe this helps energise our players.

I think it all depends on player management. If we correctly manage the psychology of our team, then whether we've lost or streaked before making the Grand Final should be less relevant to the result than our 22nd player or dodgy umpiring decisions.

 

[WE Are Geelong]

Nice post 'stripey' a good read...and for the record I agree with Parko on this issue also. No need to contrive a loss. There is no point to it and does nobody any good. If we lose again this year I just want it to be understood it was a loss and wasnt anything other than just being outplayed for the day. No need to fear losing when you are doing everything in your power and will to win.

No need to let expectations grab you by the throat either if you are genuinely taking it one week at a time which is what I believe Geelong is doing right now and why they have been so successful at keeping 'the lid' (which is starting to become like the holy grail it gets mentioned so often) on as a club and as a very focused group of players.

 

[Copernicus]

Nice read, Stripey.

An interesting little piece of history with regard to our previous streaks, but it doesn't guarantee anything and we all know it. Perhaps it's an omen, but there are still a few weeks left and who knows what might happen in the meantime. The important thing is to keep winning. Losing form is not the form we need going into finals.

 

[Partridge]

There is no such thing as a useful win, an honourable win or trying to lose.
Winning is all that matters. 1 point or 100 points if you don't win you lose and are a loser. Even if you have top spot wrapped up!!

I want Geelong to have this culture, so that when we have the flag in 2008 our sole intent is to repeat our success and smash teams.

Hopefully our players and fans will never tire of winning and never fall for thinking that losing sometimes is helpful. Its not and never will be. Success breeds success. You can learn things from failure but you can learn just as much from winning if you set your standards right.

I would hope that if Geelong was to lose a game sometime in the next 4 rounds the players would be physically hurting so bad from the hatred of it. This is the culture we need and the culture that will intimidate other clubs and their fans, breed their respect 10fold and make our club powerful. Not the maybe we should lose one kinda attitude. That sort of attitude is just crap.

After reading that, I'm enjoying my morning coffee this morning even more. That is just about the best post I've ever read on BigFooty. Totally, absolutely, completely agree with every word. Well done SirRooke. Brilliant.

Whenever the talk of consecutive wins comes up I always think of other sports for comparison. I know St.George when they won 11 premierships straight did actually go unbeaten in a couple of seasons. Sugar Ray Robinson won 91 consecutive fights at one point in his career, and of course in recent times Lance Armstrong won 7 consecutive Tour de Frances. I'd love to hear their reactions to the "due for a loss" argument.

Slightly off tangent, but it's a good story, I read once about when Australia played England at Headingley in the 1934 Ashes series. Bradman hadn't been in good form in the series at that point, not even a 50, and Australia needed a big innings. A journalist told him that as he'd made 334 on his previous visit to the ground, a big hundred was totally against the law of averages.

Bradman apparently looked him in the eye and said......."I don't believe in the law of averages".

He made 304.

That's the attitude to have.

 

[Kittenish]

And to think before I opened this topic, I thought was actually going to be about streaking.

I totally agree with Stripey, SirRooke and Patridge.

We need to keep focused, don't underestimate others just because we're winning and we need to defy the odds (and the stupid Hawthorn trollers!!!).

 

[Deep North]

The other thing people seem to have missed is if a loss is contrived how bloody valuable can it possible be? Losses happen and wins are better but both do nothing if they aren't stared down and analysed for what they are. If the guys aren't hurt/pissed off/desperate to attone etc, a contrived loss would have to be the most useless waste of time ever.

Thats why I like this years team sooooooooo much.

 

[Western Cat]

No need to lose a game.

Winning form is good form.

The key is to see each game in isolation. The next game is the most important, regardless of what number it is in the streak.

 

[Ramsay Bogunovich]

The other thing people seem to have missed is if a loss is contrived how bloody valuable can it possible be? Losses happen and wins are better but both do nothing if they aren't stared down and analysed for what they are. If the guys aren't hurt/pissed off/desperate to attone etc, a contrived loss would have to be the most useless waste of time ever.

This has been a good thread with some excellent posts. All this talk about "needing" to lose is sheer folly. Contriving to have a loss smacks of arrogance (something I don't believe we have shown at any stage) - i.e. that we can just turn it on/off like a tap. That type of attitude is likely to breed contempt for other clubs - which in turn would lead to everything falling in a heap.

The key for us is (and always has been) that if our best collective effort is given, then win, lose or draw, we cannot ask for anymore and we have to take the result that is gotten. We have a talented team, and that, when combined with a strong mental attitude, is, for the main part, what has led to the streak as we know it.